Trump Admin. Blocks Access to Puppy Mill Inspections

What’s the story?

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture is blocking access to puppy mill inspection reports as Florida weighs legislation that would make it legal to sell puppy mill dogs statewide. Update: the proposed Florida ban on local puppy mill regulations has been withdrawn. However, the USDA continues to block access to puppy mill inspection reports.

• As the Tampa Bay Times explained, "these records used to be available on the USDA website for anyone to search and find. But in the first month after President Donald Trump took office, the information was scrubbed entirely from the website."

How are the inspections being blocked?

• In May 2017, the Times asked the USDA to provide the three most recent inspections of 15 puppy breeders who supply Tampa-area stores. Nine months later, they received the reports: "54 pages of total blackout."

• "Every word of every inspection — from the date to the violations — were redacted from the documents provided," the Times wrote. “Providing ‘personnel and medical files,’ the agency said, would ‘constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.’”

What do the inspection reports include?

All About Puppies, based in Tampa, received dogs from various breeders with multiple USDA violations discovered during inspections:

• Supplier Puppies Extraordinaire, in Kansas, "was cited in 2015 and 2016 for keeping dogs in buildings and enclosures that were not up to code and could potentially cause injury."

• Another Kansas puppy mill - Whispering Oaks Kennel – "had a Shih Tzu in 2014 with an untreated eye infection swollen and crusted from a ‘slightly intruding point coming out of the pupil.’ There, dogs were drinking water that was green out of containers with ‘green slime.’"

Why does it matter?

• The Times noted that the above information came from "USDA inspections that were previously available to the public. Under the Trump administration, they are not. And if the Legislature decides to block local puppy mill ordinances, then dog buyers in those localities won't be able to see the condition of the places that bred those pups."

• The legislation would undo any local ordinance that prohibits the sale of dogs from a USDA-licensed breeder.

• "Having a USDA license for breeding dogs is like having a driver's license," said John Goodwin, the senior director of the Humane Society of the United States Stop Puppy Mills campaign. "You get to hold onto it even with a number of citations, except now, no one knows what those citations are. The worst people in the world could be selling to pet stores, and no one is the wiser."

• Ron Book, a lobbyist for Petland and other pet stores, said a ban won’t solve the puppy mill problem. In 2016, Book told the Sun Sentinel: "It's an emotional issue no matter what side you're on. We are looking for a more rational approach on how to regulate the industry. The root of the problem are the non-USDA regulated puppy mills."

What do you think?

Should the USDA return to publishing puppy mill inspection reports? Should there be nationwide legislation against them? Or is there "a more rational approach on how to regulate the industry"? Hit Take Action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

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—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: Petra Martin / iStockphoto)